Autonomous Cars are Already Hitting the Street

Decades ago, people used to think that one day humanity would zip around in cars through the sky, not having to worry about navigating their way around. Think of The Jetsons or any sci-fi film from the 50s and 60s, and you’ll have a good idea of what people then thought the future held for everyday travel. It’s 2016 and people aren’t flying in cars en masse, but what is quickly catching on is the trend of autonomous cars. There are many opinions surrounding whether this is a good thing, and not all of the trial runs for the cars have been successful, but it seems there’s definitely no turning back now.

There are some benefits to having autonomous cars on the street. For one, it’s likely that accidents would be prevented. True, there have been accidents with the self-driving cars, however many more accidents occur as a result of human error. Most notably, not paying enough attention to the road, failing to be aware of what other drivers are doing, and trying to use mobile phones while driving are huge issues. Autonomous cars put those problems to rest in many ways because it makes the margin of error for humans larger.

If you wanted to play on Euro Palace casino while driving a traditional car, that wouldn’t be a good move. However, behind the wheel of a self-driving car it would be a much safer and saner thing to do. Imagine getting into a vehicle, heading off to work, and being able to play your favorite casino games in traffic without fear of causing an accident. Self-driving cars will no doubt take multi-tasking to a new level, but there are other advantages other than being able to play on Euro Palace casino at whim.

It’s not just automakers who are experimenting with autonomous cars, but services such as Uber as well. Most know Uber as the peer to peer service that people around the world use when they need a ride. You get on the company’s app, secure a driver, and you can be on your way in minutes at an affordable price. Now that Uber is testing its first self-driving car, it can potentially expand to more areas and make its service more efficient. There’s also the potential that hitching a ride via Uber would eventually become even cheaper.

As for the future of Uber’s driving force, that’s the not so great news in all of this. Apparently, the company is testing out self-driving cars because they want to replace their entire pool of over one million human drivers as quickly as possible. If the company’s test run is successful, existing drivers will get the boot. At least they’ll still be able to play on Euro Palace casino when they want to — the cash prizes are awesome, and it’s free as well.

One question that’s been raised is how the cities Uber is currently in will react to a rash of autonomous cars being on the roads and taking earnings away from residents. Some may block the service altogether, but judging by how willing Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was to become the company’s first testing grounds, that may not be a huge problem. In the coming months, we’ll all have to wait and see how this pans out.